Lately I have been substitute teaching elementary school. It's fun and very strange all at the same time. I say strange because I always think of teachers as "grown ups" and I hardly feel like one. Does one ever?
I remember when I was very little and being in school. I thought that my teachers were these odd beings who didn't have homes because they lived at the school and they didn't watch TV because they read stories instead and all they ate were apples.
I got a little older and I figured out that none of what I had previously thought was true. But teachers still didn't seem like real people to me though. I always wanted to know more about them. Where did they live? What shows did they watch? Did they like the same bands as me? Where did they go to school? I was fascinated.
Now that I am teaching I totally get that my teachers were no different than anybody. They were not some special person. Or some kind of extraordinary being. Because that's not what I am. I am just a regular person. I hang out in the faculty lounge and talk about LOST or whatever with other teachers, I come home and play on facebook or iTunes, I read gossip sites (occasionally), I post blogs. I make dinner and hang out with my husband. Standard stuff.
Probably all the same stuff all my teachers did.
Now I have kids wanting to know about me. Now I have kids asking me all the questions I asked my teachers. Where do you live? What's your husbands name? Do you like movies? What's your favorite ice cream?
And it just made me laugh a little. How it's all come full circle. Me wanting to know about my teachers and now students wanting to know about me.
6 comments:
I never thought about my teachers as actual people until I saw my high school English teacher mowing the lawn in without a shirt on! I was scarred!
So I am always amazed when my high school students ask me questions about my personal life. Really? Why do you care? Why don't you think I'm a robot?
Ha. Life is a vicious circle.
I remember one summer I ran into my economics teacher at the beach. He was drinking beer with his friends and tried to hide it. It was very funny.
The robot comment is so funny. I think the same thing. Why don't they think I live at the school and have no life?
i remember seeing teachers outside of school and wondering why they were outside of school. didn't they just live there?
and my mom's a teacher and i didn't put it together.
even now when i see a teacher outside of school, i'm somewhat perplexed.
We spend so much of our time with our teachers but yet we know nothing about them. So seeing them anywhere outside of an educational setting is almost like a celebrity sighting.
I have to disagree - I think teachers ARE extraordinary beings! Seriously, I can't imagine dealing with 20-30 kids all day. You're pretty extraordinary for choosing to do that! :)
I am not sure if I chose it as much as it chose me. I keep trying to do different things but I seem to keep getting pulled back into this area.
I think I had this idea in my mind that I would be giving up on all of my dreams if i just took whatever job. But I think that I can still peruse all of the things I want to while giving back to my community and helping mold the minds of tomorrow.
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